This Entrepreneur’s Tea: The Last Straw

Syndi: Hey, y'all. I'm Syndi Nelson.

Noel: And I'm Noel Trevino.

Syndi: And this is Help! I'm an Entrepreneur, a podcast for those who have taken on the challenge of entrepreneurship and who love to tips and advice from successful entrepreneurs who have overcome tricky obstacles along the way. Today, as we continue our series, Noel Trevino joins us. He is a fitness and nutrition coach who helps transform his clients into competitive athletes, fit moms, and everything in between leading to healthier lifestyles and achieving their goals.

Syndi: Okay Noel! Well, it's time for my favorite segment, tea time. Now, as luck would have it, I don't actually have any tea for us to drink, actually, I brought you coffee. However, that is not the kind of tea we will be having today. But I love tea time. Noel, this is the time to air out a story you haven't told. Specifically a tough time you've had with your business that really put you in a bind and it was someone else's doing where you thought to yourself... does this happen to everyone? Is this normal? I think something's really wrong here... Now, we don't use real names, no company names as much as I'd like pure justice over the airwaves. So Noel, what's your tea?

Noel: Okay. Well, then I have a story.

Syndi: Okay. Go for it.

Noel: The last straw. We'll call it that. The tea time, the last straw. The last straw that kind of pushed me out, too, before the pandemic started. You know, I like to be really respectful, like, you know, I am someone that can hold my ground and I'm not gonna get into something if, like, a business or any kind of event if I'm gonna look dumb, you know.

But I'm also very respectful. There are, I would say, a few trainers, but there's this one trainer. Man, I guess me being a power lifter, I labeled myself as a power lifter. And him being in the game more years than me, he just thought that he was the person that people should be going to... always putting a damper on my clients, throwing jabs, just saying stuff, like being really arrogant, saying we had bad form, or always had a little something to say.

Well, there was a buddy of mine and he had a stroke and he's very hard to move and I'm helping him. And, you know, the gym is for all of us to use So I take a certain object so that he could sit on and he's working out and we're using this seat to sit on.

Well, the trainer comes over and just blows up. Comes over, takes the chair from a buddy, throws some stuff, and makes a big scene like starts yelling. In my mind, he had done that two times before. Like, gosh. Like, like, I don't know why he thinks that he can just kinda do this stuff and act like an overgrown child!

Syndi: Disrespectful

Noel: Yeah. Very disrespectful. So I walked up to him.

He looks at me just right into my face and pushes me. Yeah. And so I have a boxing background. And I knew I was like, okay.

Syndi: You're like, I got this.

Noel: Yeah, if this guy got to me, I'm just gonna, you know, protect myself. I know if I...

Syndi: You've got self-defense covered, yeah.

Noel: Yeah! If he does anything, I know I can probably hit him hard enough where it would daze him. You know. The last straw was he got in my face. He grabbed me by the throat.

He's a big strong guy. Very strong. And, I mean, I'm just gonna say this, and I know that the dude wasn't natural, so very strong. Three hundred and fifty-pound guy. grabs me by the neck. And in my mind, my self-defense comes in.

I grab his hand. I'm like, I'm not gonna pass out. Like, I grew up in rougher neighborhoods and this, you know. Like, I know how to protect myself. So I stayed as calm as possible.

He has me by the neck. And everyone starts to come over to break us up, but rewind a little bit. I swung at him and missed. I started rolling because I had some boxing background, and he kept missing me, well, he threw his body on top of me, grabbed me, got me by the neck, and he kinda held me right there. Mhmm.

And when it was all said and done, we met with the owner. The owner said, "we're family here," and I was like, we are far from family at this place. Everyone's for themselves, we have yet to have a meeting in all the three years that I've been here five, how many years it was. I I tell you my concerns. There's no ever nothing ever done about it.

Noel: So during that time, I was just like, look, it's time to go. And then soon after that COVID happened. So it was kind of a last-straw type deal. Like, man, I can't believe this is happening. My clients are watching me and I lines at the time too.

So it was with being in a place where I almost felt like I couldn't leave because I didn't have money to get started. And so that was the last straw, it pushed me out, well, I had nowhere to train. And then COVID happened. And I was like, I really don't have anywhere to train.

So I went outside. And then eventually, I got to a place on my our friend Ashley. I said, Ashley, hey, we need to find a building. Can he help us, please? And then we found this place over here off of Sylvania, so it was really fortunate that COVID happened.

Because it kinda... now you have to leave, but the reason I didn't leave is because we didn't have thirty, fifty thousand dollars a start, you know. Mhmm.

Syndi: Yeah.

Noel: So I guess I wasn't a little behind it. It was kinda scary. And, man, I'm just so thankful for the community we built and the people that we trained because they're so loyal. And they love the atmosphere we have. And the coaching, I try to bring the best coaches that I can to the industry.

And if it wasn't for that, I don't think we would have stayed afloat. Yeah. Because there are actually people that offered us their building for free.

Syndi: Wow

Noel: And use it for free.

Syndi: Mhmm.

Noel: I'm gonna say that's why it takes a team to win. No one does it by themselves.

Syndi: Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Noel: Yeah. So Not nobody. They can say you you're not self made. I promise you someone helped you get to that point. And rather you wanna give credit or not, it doesn't matter.

But you know deep down in your heart that people have helped you. So my buddy Steven, my wife, our friend Claudia, just many, many people, you know. And I say Claudia because her aunt actually opened up a place for us to use. And our friend Matthew. So the bind would have been there. And I was actually really, really scared at the time now that I can remember. I'm like, what am I gonna do? And I think that's when real stress started

Syndi: Yeah.

Noel: The start of this. At that point, what do I do? I had an apartment and rent was pricey. The rent is pricey. Jeez.

Syndi: Yes.

Noel: Like, what is going on with the economy? You know? And so yeah. So there you go. That was the last straw for me. That was my tea. No names. But the old gym I trained at just kinda man, it was a great place to be, but I feel like there can be some more rules put in place, you know.

Syndi: Oh, yeah. How did that moment ultimately shape you as an entrepreneur? And what do you learn from it?

Noel: So either you build it and you build in a way that you can rely on it or someone else is gonna tell you how to maneuver in that area. So now that we have our own building, we do what we want. When you work somewhere else and you don't set the rules, you have to kinda do what they say. You know? And so it helped me by putting a fire under my butt.

Like, if you want something brand, more professional than build it, and don't stay stuck in a place for long.

Syndi: Most entrepreneurs don't have physical battles like Noel had to endure, but you would be surprised how many stories like this we keep to ourselves. Stories like Noel's that demonstrate precarious situations that entrepreneurs find themselves in, that blindsided us completely and that we shouldn't have to go through alone. Today, we have learned that Noelle's last straw was a second large push into the growth of his business and just how valuable his team and his loyal clients were in the process of his success. In our next episode, we wind down our time with Noel in the next to last episode of his series by exploring striking a balance of entrepreneurship when it comes to working with his wife. What did he do when the time pendulum swayed too far on the side of his business.

And what was the impact on each of them? Find out in the next episode. You can find out more about Noel on Instagram. Check them out at fitnessinspiredbynoel, and don't forget to subscribe to our podcast at helpimanentrepreneur.com, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify for the opportunity to get early access to episodes and to get answers to your entrepreneurial questions from our guests and more. See you next time.